The time estimate sounds about right depending on whether you have to deal with any rusted bolts, etc. If you're replacing the head gasket I would go ahead and do a full valve job on the head and have the valve guides checked too. I would also put in a new timing chain & guide.

I'm not sure if the heads are interchangeable or not, I suspect they are but I don't know.

No, not all 22Rs are the same. Deck height changed 8/84 (85 model year). All 85-95 parts are interchangeable. Google '22R laser block' or poke around LC Engineering or Toysport to get the 411 on 20R and 22R lineage. And yes, all 22R-E are the same, Celica and Hilux. FWIW, I wouldn't bother with anything fancy on the head. Mine is mildly ported and polished, RV cam, oversized valves, the whole 9 yards. It's louder and uses more gas, but still slow as molasses in January. It also idles like crap. Go crazy if you are significantly increasing the compression and/or going to forced induction. On a stock bottom end and EFI, not worth it.

Dave, in all fairness you have a problem you've never been able to solve. My 22RE has the performance head, cam, etc and idles like butter and runs like a top. However I do agree they are still not hot rods on the street.

My suggestion was more along the lines of basic maintenance like getting the valves, valve seats, valve guides checked/rebuilt and a new timing chain.

Dave, in all fairness you have a problem you've never been able to solve. My 22RE has the performance head, cam, etc and idles like butter and runs like a top. However I do agree they are still not hot rods on the street.

My problem I'm starting think might be the AFM, which is the only part that has not been replaced, rebuilt or resoldered. It's frustrating and I grew tired of spending good time and money after bad trying to figure it out, so I just drive it, piss poor idle, weird partial throttle knock/rattle, lack of power and all. I'll put that adjustable timing gear in when I do the timing parts next spring (at 50K miles), but I've tried it on two teeth now, the one I thought and the one opposite the timing dot and it didn't make a difference. I wonder if a lobe is wrong. Being that it was delivered with no cam card or paperwork whatsoever, I've never really trusted it anyway. I've also been missing a couple of sockets for a long time, maybe those are bouncing around the crankcase. Dunno. I kept my old short block and head, so whichever gives up first gets replaced with the old parts.

Quote:

My suggestion was more along the lines of basic maintenance like getting the valves, valve seats, valve guides checked/rebuilt and a new timing chain.

100% agree, valve seats, guides, seals and new timing parts pretty much anytime you open the cover.